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Nisswa falls in region final

The Nisswa Lightning amateur baseball team's comeback bid in Region 8C playoffs fell short with an 8-7 loss in 15 innings against the Lastrup Lakers on Saturday, Aug. 9, in Upsala.

The Lightning, 23-6 overall, forced the final game with a 14-5 victory over the Lakers earlier on Saturday.

Lastrup advances to state as the top seed while Nisswa is No. 2 and will play in the first round of state against Cannon Falls at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, in Belle Plaine.

Lastrup 8, Lightning 7 (14 innings)

In Saturday's finale, the Lakers triumphed in the bottom of the 14th inning when Chad Weiss scored from second base on Nate Janson's two-out single.

Nisswa had led 2-1 after four innings before Lastrup rallied with three runs in the fifth, sparked by back-to-back RBI singles by Weiss and Dan Saehr. The Lightning cut the deficit to 4-3 in the seventh on Aaron Jenkins' RBI single.

The Lakers added a fifth run in the seventh, but Nisswa answered with three runs in the eighth for a 6-5 lead. With two outs, the Lightning tallied on Brett Jenkins' RBI single and Aaron Jenkins' two-run single. Lastrup forced extra innings with a run in the bottom of the ninth on Reggie Litke's RBI single to tie it 6-6.

Nisswa pulled ahead 7-6 in the 11th inning on Jason Roepke's sixth homer of the playoffs, but the Lakers again tied it in the bottom of the inning when Weiss had another RBI hit.

Both teams missed scoring opportunities in the 12th and 13th innings as each team hit into double plays. In the bottom of the 14th, Weiss led off with a walk, and was sacrificed to second. After a fly out, Jason then drilled a pitch down the left-field line to score Weiss with the game-winning run.

Reliever Reggie Litke, who went eight innings, earned the win. Reliever Luke Schumer, who pitched the final 2 ⅔ innings, took the loss. Weiss had four hits while Aaron Jenkins had three hits and Schumer, Jeremiah Piepkorn and Brett Jenkins each had two.

Lightning 14, Lastrup 5

In the first game, Nisswa took control early with six runs in the first inning, sparked by Aaron Jenkins' two-run homer and Roepke's solo shot. Lastrup did rally in the bottom of the inning on Jason Sadlovsky's grand slam.

Rick Schlieman homered for Lastrup to cut their deficit to 6-5 in the fifth inning. The Lightning added two insurance runs in the seventh on Tyler Wittwer's RBI single and a run-scoring ground out by Kyle Schaible. Nisswa then put the game away with six runs in the ninth.

Winning pitcher Kyle Schaible tossed his third complete game of the playoffs. Aaron and Brett Jenkins, Roepke and Wittwer each had two hits for Nisswa.